


Benriya Book-club

by Josey (cestus)



Category: Gangsta. (Manga)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 20:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4680527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cestus/pseuds/Josey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Books, benriya and burgeoning friendships.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Benriya Book-club

**Author's Note:**

> I developed a headcannon about why Nina learned to sign and her relationship with Nic. This fluffy thing is the result.

"Worick-sthan." 

A tug came on his sleeve along with the lisp of his name. Worick glanced down over the cast on his arm to find big blue eyes and a sunny smile tipped up towards him. It was the kid Dr Theo had taken in. Nina, was it? All of about six, skinny as a rake and currently missing her two front teeth.

"What?" he replied, trying not to growl. His ribs ached like a son-of-a-bitch, thanks to the boot he'd taken in them. Bastard rogues.

The skin around the kid's eyes tightened a bit like he might not have been very successful, but she didn't let it stop her. Gutsy little sprat.

"How do you talk to Nicolas-sthan?" she asked.

Ah that. He'd noticed her watching them earlier, while the doctor was sewing Nic up. Worick looked away. "Just like I talk to anyone else. With my mouth." Not exactly a lie, but not inviting anything more in the way of conversation either. Why couldn't the kid just piss off? He was hurting and totally didn't need the hassle.

"That's not what I mean," she said, and yeah that was a testy note in her voice. Worick knew it well, having spent too many of his early teenage years around testy women. "You make shapes with your hands, and he makes them back. I want to do that too."

Worick closed his eyes, his mind flashing back to the hours and hours spent teaching Nic sign language. It'd be really useful if a good memory came as standard for Twilights, but it seemed not. They'd had to do it the hard way, and no way was he doing it again with someone else. Especially a kid. 

"Well, you can't," he said, sticking a good strong note of finality in his voice.

"Why not?" she shot back, like he'd not even tried. She stood there, a book clutched against her scrawny chest and a hell-bent determined expression on her face.

"Because!" he snapped.

She huffed and rolled her eyes. "That's not a reason, that's an excuse."

"Because it'll take time and Worick's an idiot with absolutely no patience," Dr Theo said from the doorway.

"Hey!" Worick protested feebly, because Theo was right, god damn it. 

The doc didn't respond. Worick watched as, unlit-cigarette dangling, he trod across the room towards the bed where a shock of dark hair was just visible above a pulled up sheet. Nic, who was sleeping off the downer/painkiller cocktail he'd been given after the fight.

It wasn't until he was checking Nic's drip that Theo asked in an oh so casual tone, "So, you are prepared to teach Nina sign language?"

Well fuck, thought Worick, I walked right into that one. 

Still, he wasn't going down so easy. "Depends what she's wants it for. For all I know, she wants to tell him lies or something." And that wasn't a weak ass excuse at all.

"I want to talk to him about this," Nina lisped, shoving the book at Worick like it was something to be proud of. 

It had a green and white cover with red pictures on the back. Without looking any more closely, Worick knew there'd be red lettering on the front that read, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He'd read it from cover to cover years ago, before he went to live with his dad. Back before he worked out that reading stories about make-believe worlds just clogged up his brain when he needed it for other things. 

"What makes you think he'd want to speak to you about that? It's just some kid's book," he told Nina, still hoping she'd give up on the idea. He didn't have time. Plus, he was a shit teacher. Always had been. He knew that now, having seen good ones at work. 

Nina's gaze dropped to the book she was holding out and her bottom lip wobbled slightly. At the sight of it, fear chilled Worick's veins. Not tears. He could cope with anything but tears.

Panicking more than a bit, he offered a grin and, "But, you know, Nic does read a lot of crap, so maybe he's read that too."

"You think?" The blue eyes that lifted to meet his own were a guileless clear blue. Damn, the kid was good. 

Worick threw in the towel, and added in some of his precious free time as well. "Yeah. Look, I tell you what, get the doc to drop the charges for the Nic's stitches and I'll teach you sign. How's that?"

"Done," Theo said, standing up next to Nic's bed. With a cheer, Nina bounced over to him and they exchanged an unsubtle high-five. Wisely, Worick ignored their celebrations, rolled over and pretended to go to sleep. He knew when he'd been played by experts.

*

He had a stalker. A small blue-eyed stalker who was definitely watching him from the clinic's office, even if she did keep glancing away every time he looked in her direction. Nic narrowed his eyes, then made a show of kicking his chair back against the wall and letting his head drop onto his chest like he was taking a nap. 

Which, for the record, he never would. When he got a job keeping an eye on a place, he took it seriously. Even more so when it was Dr Theo's Celebret stocks that were under threat. Anyone tried to break into this place tonight, they were in for a nasty shock. 

A few moments passed with Nic mock dozing, and sure enough, as soon as she thought he wasn't looking, Nina stopped sorting bandages and began staring at him again. 

To begin with, Nic thought it was his tags. They seemed the most logical thing for her to be curious about. Like maybe Theo had told her more about what the tags meant, though the kid was Ergastulum born and bred, so she had to know at least the basics.

But it wasn't the tags that had her attention, Nic realised a few moments later when she crept out of the office. It was the book he'd been reading. The one now lying on the table in front of him. 

As he watched through slitted eyes, his little stalker paused, then reached out, her hand coming to rest on the top of the book. 

The slam of the chair legs hitting the floor reverberated through Nic's body. It made Nina jump, and maybe scream too. Her mouth opened anyway, as she stood there, eyes wide and shocky with Nic's fingers clamped around her wrist tight enough to stop her running away.

"Sorry," she was saying. "Sorry, sorry…" Then something he couldn't catch, followed by, "..not mine. I just wanted to know-"

" **asK. dON't crEEp up. GeT yoUR Head CUT off thAT WAy.** " He jerked his chin at the katana standing beside him.

Nina's gaze cut towards the sword and she swallowed visibly before nodding. Then her narrow shoulders straightened and she tugged her arm out from Nic's grasp. He let her go, expecting her to run away like any sensible kid would when a Twilight just told them they were gunning for a decapitation. 

Instead, she turned to face him and slowly, carefully, signed, _Sorry for being rude. Please tell me, what book are you reading?_

It was all Nic could do not to gape. Apart from Worick, only one other person used sign with him regularly, and his mind shied away from all thoughts of her. Yet here was this kid, not exactly fluent, but trying.

His fingers closed around hers before he could stop them. " **wHO?** " he demanded. 

She blinked at him in obvious confusion until he shook their joined hands, then her face split into a sunny smile and she said, "Worick-san."

" **whY?** " It wasn't like Worick to volunteer for something like that. If anything, he avoided kids. Though he had been sneaking out recently, claiming he had a new client. His blue-eyed girl.

Nic squinted at Nina, who was now looking... not nervous. More, hopeful maybe? Though her lips were easy to read as she said, "Because no one else I know reads like you do, and I love to read books too."

She wanted to share his books? Set up a book club? Nic glanced at the table where his current reading material lay, tatty and face down, its spine cracked. If that was what she wanted, he might not be such a good example to follow. 

Then again, that went for everything when a Twilight was involved.

When he didn't answer, Nina's gaze dropped to the floor as she continued, "I just thought it would be really nice to have someone to talk to about them, and I know you find it hard to speak, so I asked Worick-san to teach me sign so we could talk that way."

She'd gone to all that effort. Just for him? Just so she could talk to him? About books?

Nic had no clue what to do with any of this. No one had ever just wanted to talk to him. Like a person. Even Veron- 

No one. Ever.

In his grip, Nina flinched. Nic released her fingers immediately and she rubbed at them, grimacing. He must have tightened his hand without thinking, and he'd hurt her.

 _Sorry_ , he signed, adding without thinking, _Don't know my own strength sometimes._ It was a throwaway line. One he used to tease Worick when he was being an ass. 

The look Nina gave him was wide-eyed for a second, then her face scrunched up and she giggled. He might not have been able to hear it, but the expression and movement were unmistakable. 

She signed again, hands all over the place as she chortled fit to burst, _If you ever want to know, it's written around your neck!_

Cheeky little-! 

Nic lunged, catching the girl and swinging her off the ground. Nina's shriek of laughter resonated through her body as he launched her high enough to almost touch the ceiling. But it was the look of total joy on her face that made him do it again, and again. 

By the time he stopped, her face was flushed and she was hiccupping from laughing so much. Nic put her feet gently on the ground, waited for her to recover her balance, and then scrubbed a hand roughly through her hair. 

She caught it and pouted at him, signing clumsily with her other hand, _Tell me about the book, Nicolas-san. Is it good. Is it as good as the Wizard?_

Nic looked again at the book on the table, at the picture of the scarecrow and tinman on the cover, and considered its tale of monsters who were treated like people and people who behaved like monsters. 

Then, _Just Nic,_ he replied. There was no need for anything more. Not between friends.

  
_fine_

  


**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who's interested, the book Nic's reading is the sequel to the Wizard of Oz called The Marvelous Land of Oz, and it's even weirder and more surreal than the first one.


End file.
